Navigation

OverPlay Review

May 8, 2015

Rating

Countries

48

Servers

48

IPs

5000

Price

$9.95

Payment:

Credit Card, Paypal

Protocols

PPTP, OpenVPN

VPN service provider OverPlay offers a high quality VPN service at a decent price. In addition to their VPN offering OverPlay also offers an optimized SmartDNS service for when you don’t require encryption. They offer all the major VPN protocols, a very simple client and console, mobile and router compatibility.

OverPlay Pricing & Plans

OverPlay offers discounts for longer sign up periods. Their plans include:
* Monthly: $9.95
* Three Months: $27.95
* Six Months: $52.95
* Twelve Months: $99.95
* Smart DNS: $4.95 per month The SmartDNS service doesn’t provide encryption or increased privacy, but speed will typically be faster than it will over a VPN.

Free Trial / Money Back Guarantee

This company doesn’t offer a money-back guarantee with their service, though you can go the monthly route without a recurring payment to try it out.

Privacy & Anonymity

OverPlay does not keep personally identifying logs, but they do keep connection times and data download totals. These are deleted regularly.

Torrent Policy

There are no torrent restrictions on this service.

Customer Support Customer

support is available via email. Also Overplay has very detailed help and support pages for every platform.

Product Testing

OverPlay has a very streamlined, even simple, client for Windows. After logging in, you can automatically connect or choose a server using their advanced option.

Once you’re connected, there’s little to distract you from browsing.

OverPlay Setup / How to Use OverPlay

While OverPlay can be set up manually, users also have the option of downloading a client that will handle the installation for them. The company recommends that users take advantage of this, as the software will automatically punch the appropriate holes in the firewall and make it much easier to work with the service. There are

downloads available for Windows 2000 through Windows 7 and Mac OS systems. There are instructions provided for running the service on iOS and Android, DD-WRT routers, XBOX360 and many other devices on their site, as well. This provider has very easy to use software for DD-WRT routers, if you want to go with that option. For SmartDNS, there are separate instructions which are very easy to follow. You can get this service going in no time, no client required.

Speed Test

Above you can see a baseline test over a 50Mbps upload/5Mbps download connection from Albuquerque, NM to Washington DC. Below, you’ll see the results of a test from OverPlay’s LA servers—the closest to ours—and the same Washington DC server. Over the VPN server, there was a 17.37 Mbps reduction in download speed and an 1 Mbps reduction in upload speed. That still offers very high speeds; certainly enough for a steady video stream. The 43ms increase in ping might be noticeable for gamers, but it’s likely that no one else would experience any difficulties.

IPCheck and DNSLeak Test

Our IP check matched up with what OverPlay’s client showed. DNS, however, did leak, so it’s probably best for users on this service to manually configure their DNS server to use Google public DNS. Note: If you use the included smartDNS addresses however your DNS will not leak – The DNSLeak only appears in conjunction with the Windows VPN software.

We Liked

Areas for Improvement

They could start offering a money-back guarantee

No Mobile Apps

Client might not offer enough feedback for some users

Conclusion

OverPlay is a good service if you want something affordable and easy to use. If you’re primarily interested in getting around geo-restrictions on content, their SmartDNS is a particularly suitable option. OverPlay also

has great software for their DD-WRT router service. Their tutorials are excellent and even novice users should have little or no trouble getting the service up and running, no matter how they decide to use it, router or otherwise.

Comments

Been a customer of Overplay for around six years. Originally the service was ok, but recently speeds have dropped off and the service is unusable. I regularly achieve speeds fifteen times as fast with a competitor. Atrocious support and non-existent customer service.